[Sca-cooks] another wedding feast for Aethelwulf-

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 02:33 PM 10/7/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Lainie wrote:
>> The feast was held on a Monday (June 5) so I doubt that meat days (or not)
>> had anything to do with it. And non-meat eaters? Not many of those in Italy
>> in 1368...
>
>How about members of religious orders?  I believe some of them observed
>dietary restrictions all the time.
>
>Yours,
>
>Katherine

Well, as I was already working on this question, in response to Margaret's
earlier post, I believe there is a little confusion as regards to clerical
orders.

The clergy was basically divided into two branches- the 'secular' clergy,
which are the those who remain in the world, such as priests, bishops, etc;
and the monastic orders, which are cloistered.

When we think of aesceticism in teh clergy, we are generally thinking of
the monastic orders. Yes, the Benedictines do not eat meat (unless they are
very elderly or ill). Several other orders also refrain from flesh.
However, those vows are specific to the order and are by no means
universal. Secular clergy do not take such vows- they have instruction to
avoid gluttony, but even that isn't routinely observed, if one notes that
plentitude of writings against gluttonous clerics. Abstaining from meat was
specific and purposeful: by example, when teh news of the Saracen capture
of Jerusalem reached the Abbot Samsom of Bury St Edmonds in 1187, he made
an oath to eat no more meat- not as a penance, but to increase alms. There
is also an account of several members of a bishop's household deciding to
'fast' one extra day a week through November and December (1289/90)- that
is, to refrain from eating meat- eating only fish.
There are of course other examples, but it would be gluttonous to list them
all... ;-)

To make a (probably) over-broad statement- monks have restricted diets,
priests don't.

Nobody eats meat on Friday, of course.

Now, as to the wedding feast- gotta point out that monks don't get out
much- they are in the monastery, yes? Monks don't go to wedding feasts. And
the secular clergy who were present were certainly not troubled by fasting
on a Monday.

As to non-meat-eaters in italy, beyond the cloistered monks, there really
aren't many. The Cathars are supposedly stamped out. And beyond the
occasional weirdo or anchorite, the practice of not eating meat is not one
of choice, but of necessity because of poverty. None of which has any
bearing on the wedding feast of a Visconti, I should think.

Merrily chomping away on a piece of Smithfield ham taht my sweetie brought
me from Virginia,

'Lainie
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